>2_ 



Requirements for the 
Bachelor's Degree «s 



BY 



CHARLES W. DABNEY, Ph.D., LL.D., 

President of the University of Tennessee 



* 



REQUIREMENTS FOR 

THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 

IN SOUTHERN COLLEGES 



A REPORT PREPARED FOR THE ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGES AND PREPARATORY SCHOOLS 

IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, READ AT THE MEETING AT ATHENS, 

GEORGIA, NOVEMBER 2, iSgS 



BY 

CHARLES W. DABNEY, PH.D., LL.D., 

PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, AND PRESIDENT OF THE 
ASSOCIATION, 1899 



,»** 



L%v 



MAY & 



1914 



Reprinted from the School Review, No. 3, Vol. VII, 
at the University of Chicago Press. 



REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 

Having probably accomplished all that can be accomplished at 
the present time in elevating the standard of admission to the fresh- 
man class, it is believed that the association should next direct its 
attention to the requirements for academic degrees. It was doubtless 
with this view that our secretary has asked me to prepare a report upon 
the requirements for bachelor degrees in the colleges and universities 
in the territory covered by this association. It was proposed at first to 
investigate all the degrees given by southern institutions, but the field 
was so large and the time allowed so short, that I have confined this 
investigation to the B.A. and B.S. degrees. "'. 

First, let us get clearly in mind the object of all colleges and all 
college courses. 

The end of college education is culture, the only preparation for 
worthy life, the life of the ordinary man, as the end of the university 
education is the training J,o think and investigate, the only preparation 
for the worthiest life, the life of leadership in the world of thought 
and of action. This idea of the liberal education is as old as civiliza- 
tion, and has been the purpose of all true schools and the hope of all 
good teachers since the world began. " Wisdom is the principal thing, 
therefore get wisdom ; and with all thy getting get understanding. 
Exalt her and she shall promote thee : she shall bring thee to honor," 
said Solomon. Aristotle taught that "there is a certain education 
which our sons should receive, not as being practical and useful, not 
as indispensable, but as' liberal and noble. The endeavor of nature is, 
not only that men may be able to engage in business rightly, but also 
to spend their leisure nobl}\ The right conduct of business and the 
noble employment of leisure are both requisite." The ancients 
believed as we do that a liberal education is good for all races and 
orders of men, in all times and places, and under all conditions. This 
idea Cicero has expanded in the oft-quoted passage : " Nam ceterse, 
neque temporum sunt, nequc setatum omnium neque locorum ; at hsec 
studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, 
adversis perfugium ac solacium prsebent, delectant domi, non impediunt 
foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur." 

We may differ as to the methods of giving the child a liberal edu- 

iS4 



155 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 

cation — we have undoubtedly improved those methods and enlarged 
the scope of the liberal education since the days of Solomon, Aristotle, 
and Cicero — but scholars have never differed as to the objects aimed 
at as the foundation of a worthy life. The chief elements of the 
Greek system of education were aesthetic and physical culture, the 
cultivation of literary expression, and training in the rules of argumen- 
tation. Roman education emphasized the study of institutions and 
law. With the introduction of Christianity, this system was modified 
and improved in the direction of literary and religious culture. The 
Middle Ages witnessed a change in favor of the study of languages, 
literature, and a largely fictitious history ; and for several centuries 
men gave themselves to a slavish study of manuscripts which contained, 
as they thought, all the wisdom of the world. It is only in modern 
times that we have learned to appreciate the book of nature and study 
it as the Creator intended we should. Few will now deny that a liberal 
education may be obtained by other methods than the study of Latin 
and Greek texts. Thus both the material and the methods of educa- 
tion change, but the ideal continues the same throughout all the ages. 
That ideal is today, as it always has been and always will be, a liberal 
education, the only preparation for the worthy life. 

Men appreciated the value of the liberal education, and understood 
its methods, in part, at least, long before they had the slightest concep- 
tion of its rationale. It was impossible for them to grasp this until 
that grand conception of modern science, the theory of evolution, 
came to illumine all our problems and direct all our methods. The 
doctrine of infancy in the human species has thrown a flood of light upon 
the rationale of education, and has explained both the necessity for 
and a value of, that course of training which we have tried to give our 
youth ever since the time of Solomon. "The doctrine of evolution 
teaches us to look upon the world around us — our art, our science, 
our literature, our institutions, and our religious life — as an integral 
part, indeed, as the essential part, of our environment ; and it teaches 
us to look upon education as the plastic period of adapting and adjust- 
ing our self-acting organism to this vast series of hereditary acquisi- 
tions. \ So that while the child's first right and first duty is to adjust 
himself physiologically to his environment, to learn to walk, to use his 
hands, and to feed himself, to be physically independent, there still 
remains the great outer circle of education or culture, without contact 
with which no human being is really either man or woman. The child 
receives first, and in a short series of vears, his animal inheritance; it 



THE SCHOOL REVIEW 156 

then remains for us in the period of education to see to it that he 

comes into his human inheritance This period of adjustment 

constitutes, then, the period of education ; and this period of adjust- 
ment must, as it seems to me, give us the basis for all educational 
theory and all educational practice, and it must at the same time pro- 
vide us with our ideals." — Butler. 

It is the object of this investigation to ascertain what our southern 
colleges are doing to impart this liberal culture, as distinguished from 
the technical or professional education, or the special training for 
research, which it is the duty of the university to give. Let us first 
fix our attention closely upon the objects aimed at, and see how our 
methods measure up to these ideals. Perhaps the noblest and com- 
pletest description of the liberal education in modern literature is con- 
tained in this paragraph from that great master of evolution and edu- 
cation both, Huxley : "That man, I think, has had a liberal education 
whose body has been so trained in youth that it is the ready servant of 
his will, and does with ease and pleasure all that as a mechanism it is 
capable of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its 
parts of equal strength and in smooth running order, ready, like a 
steam engine, to be turned to any kind of work and to spin the gossa- 
mers, as well as forge the anchors, of the mind ; whose mind is stored 
with the knowledge of the great fundamental truths of nature and of 
the laws of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life 
and fire, but whose passions have been trained to come to heel by a 
vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience; one who has learned 
to love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness and 
to esteem others as himself." 

This noble statement gives us the starting point for an analysis of 
the elements of the liberal education. First, the youth must have a 
body "so trained that it is the ready servant of his will, and does with 
ease and pleasure all that as a mechanism it is capable of." We know 
now that a knowledge of his physical nature, its structure, its organi- 
zation, the laws of its development and health, and especially of those 
laws which control the working of the brain and the nervous system, 
is the most valuable knowledge the man can have. This implies also 
a knowledge of the effects of bodily habits upon mental states ; of the 
laws of exercise, diet, and sleep, and of the right use of all those things 
that tend to produce that healthy body which the best support of the 
intellectual life. The Greeks gave a proper place to physical training 
in their system of education, but from their time to pur own the physi- 



157 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 

cal education has been too much neglected. One of the most impor- 
tant questions we have to ask of our colleges is, What are you doing to 
build human "bodies which shall ever be the ready servant of the will 
and do with ease and pleasure all that as a mechanism they are capa- 
ble of?" We regret to say that we have received a very unsatisfactory 
answer to this important question- — so unsatisfactory an answer that 
we may as well say that very little is systematically done outside of a 
half dozen institutions — and drop the matter here. 

Secondly, the making of the intellect, the building of the "clear, 
cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth 
running order." We give the youth this training chiefly by the study of 
mathematics and the physical sciences, and by training in logic and 
philosophy. How are we doing this ? 

Thirdly, we must give the youth a knowledge of his own tongue, 
its history, its laws, its idoms, and its capabilities. In these days it is 
necessary that he also have a knowledge of the tongues of several 
other peoples. In order to avail himself of the literature and art of 
the past and to make his own contribution to the thought of the future, 
he must, in fact, know all the methods of embodying thought and feel- 
ing. Language, the vehicle of thought, is absolutely essential, espe- 
cially a mastery of the mother tongue. It is the crystal vial that 
contains all the potentiality of the living present, as literature is the 
sculptured urn that holds all the ashes of the dead past. These are 
not mere accomplishments ; rightly viewed and used, they are an inspi- 
ration, a lesson, and a guide. Aside from their direct, or first uses, 
the languages are the most perfect educational polishing machines. 
In the gymnasium of the Latin and Greek, the mind, stripped like the 
athlete, brings many an intellectual muscle into play. Properly used, 
these studies exercise many faculties — observation, comparison, and 
analysis, as well as memory, imagination, and taste. Through them 
the youthful mind grows to robust manhood, so that he who was but a 
stripling of a freshman finds himself an intellectual Hercules when a 
senior. 

Fourthly, we must store the mind with the knowledge of nature 
and her laws, while we fill the heart with the love of her. It is a trite 
saying that the Creator has given us two books to study — the book of 
Revelation and the book of Nature. But we cannot express it better. 
The book of Nature is laid out open before the child everywhere for 
the purpose of developing his senses and teaching him law and beauty. 
Nature study is the joy and inspiration of the young, the comfort and 



THE SCHOOL REVIEW 158 

recreation of the old ; it brings us some of the most useful knowledge 
we ever get, trains the perceptive powers to habits of accurate and dis- 
criminating observation, and develops the reason and the judgment. 

Fifthly, the liberally educated man must have a knowledge of the 
experiences and opinions of his ancestors as expressed in their institu- 
tions and laws. He must know all the sad and wearisome steps by 
which man has marched from savagery to civilization, from the dark- 
ness toward the light. So we come to sociology, the science of sciences, 
in the light of whose teachings, we optimists believe, man is to march 
through the deserts and the wildernesses into the promised land, which 
hope has ever held before our race, and which is the object of all our 
striving. For this Heaven the whole race is being educated ; for races 
have their periods of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age, as well as 
individual men ; and this world was made to be the home, the school, 
and the training ground of our human kind, so that, at least, we might 
all enter into this estate of perfect knowledge, perfect peace, and per- 
fect joy. 

Sixthly, and, finally, the moral and religious nature must be devel- 
oped — "the passion trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the 
servant of a tender conscience." Better not educate the man at all 
than sharpen all his powers and then leave him without a conscience 
to direct him. Conscience is the guardian of the man, and righteous- 
ness is the teacher of conscience. Righteousness is the finishing touch 
to the picture, the final tempering of the tool, the governor of the 
engine, the compass of the ship. What is man worth without a " ten- 
der conscience ? " What is education worth without righteousness ? 
Just as much as the picture without the finishing touch, the tool with- 
out temper, the engine without governor, the ship without compass. 

Let us see, now, how our southern colleges are planning to give 
their students this sixfold training which we call the liberal education. 
In order to conform to the language of the catalogues, we will group 
the various subjects of instruction together under the following heads : 

First, the English language — the mother tongue — and its litera- 
ture. 

Second, other languages and their literatures, especially the glori- 
ous Latin and Greek, and the French and the German — and, must we 
not now say, Spanish ? 

Third, the mathematics. 

Fourth, the natural sciences; divided into the experimental sciences, 
physics, and chemistry, and the descriptive sciences, botany, and biology. 



159 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELORS DEGREE 

Fifth, history and political science. 

Sixth, philosophy. 

Seventh, physical culture and all that contributes thereto. 

Eighth, moral and righteous training. Moral training must, of 
course, be given with and through all of these. It is too spiritual to 
be described and measured as we describe and measure the others, and 
must, therefore, be left to be understood. 

The courses of study presented in the catalogues of some fifty col- 
leges and universities in our territory have been examined and ana- 
lyzed, and the results classified and measured in accordance with the 
plan used in our best institutions ; that is, the work required in the 
different subjects has been reduced to the number of hours of recita- 
tions and lectures in the annual session. The number of written exer- 
cises, themes, or reports, required to be prepared outside recitation 
hours were noted wherever possible. The amount of parallel reading 
required was also noted. The minimum amount of laboratory work 
required was ascertained, each unit representing two hours. In the 
accompanying tables, the first figures under each head represent the 
number of hours of recitations or lectures. W. stands for regular 
written exercises, themes, or reports, and the figures following express 
the number of them required. P. stands for parallel reading, and the 
figures following mean the number of pages. L. stands for laboratory 
work, and the figures represent the number of two-hour periods. 
Where sciences are taught in the laboratory (as they should be), this 
laboratory work is included with the recitations and lectures, two hours 
being reckoned as one. Where the instruction is in part by lectures 
and in part by recitation, the amount of laboratory work required is 
given in parenthesis. The work in languages and literature is given 
under three heads : the English language and literature, the ancient 
languages and their literature, the modern languages and their litera- 
ture ; and the total of these is given in the next column. Pure math- 
ematics has a column to itself. Experimental sciences and descriptive 
sciences are given in separate columns, and the total work bestowed 
upon mathematics and sciences is given in the next column. History 
and political science are given in one column, philosophy in another, 
and these two added together in a third. A column is devoted to 
physical culture, including military drill and similar exercises. 
Another column gives the total number of hours required in the 
entire course for B.A. or B.S. The first figures in this case express 
the total number of hours required in the course ; the second figure 



THE SCHOOL REVIEW 160 

the number of hours of prescribed studies ; and the third the number 
of hours of elective studies. The word "thesis" in this column means 
that an original thesis or dissertation is required in addition to the 
foregoing work. The last column gives the average number of hours 
per week of recitation, lecture, and laboratory work for the entire 
course (two laboratory equal to one of recitation). Accompanying 
this paper is only one of the large tables. This gives in one group 
the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the eight 
colleges and universities belonging to the Association of Colleges and 
Preparatory Schools in the Southern States. For the purpose of 
comparison we have added at the bottom of this table the work 
required for the B.A. at Yale. The second group in the table gives 
the requirements for the degree of B.A. in twelve of the best colleges 
and universities in the territory having nearly the same entrance and 
graduation requirements as the colleges belonging to this association. 
It has not been possible, in the case of some of the institutions having 
the " Group system," to distribute the work required into all of the 
columns ; but the distribution has been carried as far as possible, and 
the "Group" distribution is given wherever it was impossible to carry 
it further. 

The figures without initials before them represent the total number 
of hours in the annual session. For example, if a study is scheduled 
for three hours a week for a term of twelve weeks, the gross number of 
thirty-six hours is included. If a subject is scheduled for three hours 
a week for forty weeks, 120 hours are put down. No effort has been 
made to eliminate the holidays or periods devoted to examinations. 
It is believed that the deduction for holidays and examinations would 
be approximately equal for all institutions. 

The announcements or catalogues give in most cases fairly definite 
statements with regard to the subjects taught and the number of hours 
devoted to recitations and lectures. The majority of them are very 
indefinite, however, with regard to the number of written exercises, 
themes, or reports, and the amount of parallel reading required. Very 
few state exactly how much laboratory work is required, though the 
majority mention it in connection with the sciences. Statements with 
regard to the work in history and philosophy are less definite than 
those with regard to the work in mathematics and languages. The 
work required in physical culture is rarely defined at all, even in insti- 
tutions known to have good equipment. We would urge all institu- 
tions to be more definite in their statements of all these matters. 



i6i 



REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 



In some institutions, where the rule is to give perfect freedom of 
election, it has been impossible to ascertain what the requirements for 
B.A. are. To illustrate, one institution merely requires that the stu- 
dent shall have finished twenty units, one unit being a three-hour 
course running through the session of forty weeks, or the equivalent 
made up from shorter courses, making a total of 2400 hours for the 
degree. Only a few studies amounting to two or three units are 
prescribed. Such an institution has no course whatever for the B.A. 
degree. The elective system is one thing ; to give absolute freedom of 
election without system is a very different thing. The majority of our 
institutions give the student some freedom of election within "groups," 
and prescribe a certain order of studies. Such requirements are 
logical and have been included. To give the kind of undergraduates 
we get in the South the privilege to elect all their studies without 
regard to " group" or order of study, is contrary to every principle of 
education. In such extreme cases no B.A. requirements could be stated. 

Examining the first group in the table (institutions in the Southern 
College Association), we find that they all require from one to three 
years' work in English, from two to four years' work in ancient lan- 
guage, and one to three years' work in pure mathematics. They all 
require some science, but the requirements in sciences and philosophy 
vary more widely. The following table, giving the number of hours 
positively prescribed in the different subjects, and the average total 
number of hours, and hours per week for the eight colleges in this 
association, shows how the requirements vary in the different institu- 
tions : 



WORK PRESCRIBED BY COLLEGES IN SOUTHERN ASSOCIATION FOR 

B.A. DEGREE 





Highest, hours 


Lowest, hours] 


Average for 

these colleges 

hours 


On English and literature, - 


Univ. So. 
Course A. 


Wash. & Lee. 




On ancient languages and lit- 
erature, - - - - 


380 

Univ. So. 
Course A. 


120 
Univ. Tenn. 


260 


On the total of prescribed 


880 


280 


563 


languages and literature, - 


Vanderbilt and 
Univ. Miss. 


Wash. & Lee. 






1120 


620 


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THE SCHOOL REVIEW 



162 





Highest, hours 


Lowest, hours 


Average for 

these colleges 

hours 


On pure mathematics, - 


Univ. So. 


Vanderbilt. 






360 


160 


282 


On experimental sciences, - 


Univ. Miss. 


Univ. So. 






400 


60 


220. 


On descriptive sciences, 


Univ. Tenn. 


Several 






440 


none 


226 


On total in mathematics and 








sciences, - 


Univ. Tenn. 


Vanderbilt. 




On history and political 


1240 


360 


626 


science and philosophy, - 


Trinity. 


Vanderbilt. 






600 


200 


364 


Total required for degree, - 


Univ. Tenn. 


Wash. & Lee 






2970 


2180 


26l I 


Total positively prescribed, 


Univ. Miss. 


Univ. N. C. 






2160 out of 2800 


1600 out of 2561 


D 


Average per week for whole 








course, ... 


Univ. Tenn. 


Wash. & Lee 






18K 


I3X 


l6}4 



The requirements of the second group of institutions do not differ 
greatly from the above, with the exception of the University of Vir- 
ginia, which requires a total of only 1380 hours, 1140 of which are 
prescribed and 240 elective, against a total of 2478 for all the institu- 
tions of this group. The methods of the University of Virginia are 
so different from those of other institutions that they can hardly be 
compared. No order of studies is prescribed. It requires at the pres- 
ent time, however, a definite amount of work in each one of the seven 
groups which have been inserted in the table. 

We have also tabulated the courses offered by some thirty other 
institutions, denominational colleges, agricultural and mechanical col- 
leges, and miscellaneous institutions. There is not space to present 
the results. The important points learned from them will be noticed 
below. 

Further discussion of the data contained in the tables is unneces- 
sary. They will repay careful study, and each reader will draw his own 
conclusions. 

Some of the institutions giving great freedom of election object 
to this plan of measuring the work done in hours of lectures, recita- 
tions, laboratory work, etc., on the ground that time is not an impor- 
tant factor in their requirements. With them the student is given 



163 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELORS DEGREE 

his degree whenever he can pass the required examinations, whether 
he has attended one year or ten, and taken 600 hours, or even 6000, 
of recitation and laboratory work in the institution. If we cannot 
measure our requirements in hours of lectures, recitations, and labora- 
tory work, and in numbers of written reports and pages of parallel 
reading, how shall we measure them at all ? Their plan is opposed 
alike to the best experience of the oldest schools and the surest teach- 
ings of modern science. Carried out to its conclusion, it means that 
neither time nor environment, residence in a community of scholars, 
daily contact with learned professors, or regular work in libraries and 
laboratories, count for anything in education. These things may be 
stimuli or helps, but they are not necessary. Do these institutions 
mean to tell their students that these things are really not necessary, 
and that they might as well take their books and apparatus home and 
do their work there and come up to the university for examinations? 
It is universally agreed, now, that examinations are no adequate test of 
culture, even if they are a test of information acquired. As time is a 
great, if not the most essential, factor of evolution, so it is the most 
important factor in education, and the most essential part of the envi- 
ronment of culture is the people we meet, the books we read, and the 
things we see and work with. To deny that we can measure our 
requirements in time or estimate the educational value of our institutions 
by taking an inventory of their professors, libraries, laboratories, etc., 
is to remove the foundations of our system of education. 

We have also prepared a similar table showing the requirements for 
the B.S. degrees in our colleges. The effort was carried far enough to 
show very clearly that nothing more could be learned from the inves- 
tigation beyond the fact that our colleges have extremely indefinite, 
and widely varying views with regard to the meaning of the B.S. 
degrees. In the best institutions the B.S. course is one in which the 
sciences and modern languages have the leading place. In the major- 
ity, however, the course for B.S. is a hotchpotch of whatever the col- 
lege has to offer outside of the ancient languages. For this reason, 
we will not burden this paper with this table or any discussion of it 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

It is with great hesitation that I submit some general conclusions 
and recommendations for the consideration of this association. Believ- 
ing that a set of propositions is necessary in order to start the discus- 
sion, which, it is hoped, will lead to the adoption of certain fixed 



THE SCHOOL REVIEW 164 

principles regulating the requirements for academic degrees in the 
institutions belonging to this association, I make the following sug- 
gestions : 

It is impossible for me to give in detail all the reasons for these 
conclusions and recommendations, though they are drawn from the 
study I have made and are based upon the facts ascertained. I can- 
not present all the data used in any number of tables, although I 
have with me some fifty sheets, representing the courses in as many 
different institutions, which I hope members will examine and criticise. 

I believe that the conditions existing in the southern colleges whose 
published catalogues and reports have been studied justify me in pro- 
posing that this association consider definite action upon the following 
points : 

First. Abolish all academic degrees excepting the B.A. and pos- 
sibly the B.S. The first thing that impresses one in looking over the 
lists of degrees given by these institutions, is the fertility of the imag- 
ination and the inventive powers of their faculties as displayed in the 
multiplication of degrees and courses of study. As a rule, the smaller 
the colleges and the more limited their faculties, the more numerous 
are the courses of study and the degrees offered. Among bachelors 
degrees we find Bachelor of Arts, of sciences, of philosophy, of letters, 
of pedagogics, and of literature ; not to speak of Bachelors of Agricul- 
ture, scientific agriculture, civil, mining, and electrical engineering, of 
mechanic arts ; of veterinary science, and' even of domestic science — 
whatever that is — which probably do not belong to our field. Confin- 
ing ourselves to the degrees supposed to represent the liberal education, 
we should give only those which have some real significance. Under 
this rule, we should certainly eliminate the degree of Bachelor of Phi- 
losophy, which students usually consider the "consolation prize," in 
horse-racing parlance, to be awarded to him who cannot get anything 
better. So I fail to see that the degree of Bachelor of Letters or of 
Bachelor of Literature has any significance in these colleges different 
from that of Bachelor of Arts. 

Second. The association should denounce in unmeasured terms the 
practice of some colleges of giving honorary academic degrees. It is 
bad enough to give hononary A.M.'s and Ph.D.'s, which should be earned 
graduate university degrees, awarded only for the highest attainments in 
certain special studies and upon evidence of ability to conduct inde- 
pendent research, and tested by a course of several years, based upon a 
liberal education. But it is an intolerable outrage to give honorary 



165 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 

bachelor degrees, because this practice strikes at the very foundation 
of the liberal education. No self-respecting man will have a B.A. or 
B.S. degree if we give them away for nothing. 

Third. Let us agree upon certain general requirements for the 
bachelor degrees that we do give, and make them signify something. 
Basing my suggestions upon the average requirements of our more 
reputable institutions and seeking to make them what they can do best, 
I would suggest for the B.A. degree the following program : 

A course of study, based upon the present requirements of this asso- 
ciation for admission to the freshman class, covering not less than three 
years for the best prepared and brightest students, but requiring four 
years of the averge student, aggregating a total of at least 2400 hours 
of recitations, lectures, and laboratory work (counting two hours of 
laboratory work for each one of lecture or recitation), distributed 
among the four great groups of studies in approximately the following 
proportions : 

1. Languages and literature, about 960 hours, including 240 hours 
of the English language and literature, 240 hours in one ancient lan- 
guage, at least, with weekly written work and parallel reading in both ; 
the remainder to be made up from the other ancient and modern lan- 
guages. 

2. Pure mathematics, at least 240 hours, covering advanced alge- 
bra, plane and solid geometry, and plane trigonometry. 

3. The natural sciences, at least 480 hours, divided between one 
experimental science and one descriptive science, with regular labora- 
tory work. Our southern preparatory schools do little in the natural 
sciences, and this makes it necessary to give considerable time to their 
study in the college course. This has always been the weakest place 
in our southern colleges, and in many of them the sciences are still 
wretchedly taught. 

4. History, political science, and philosophy, 240 hours, two years' 
study in some department of history, or one year each in history and 
philosophy, with written reports and parallel reading. 

This leaves 480 hours to be elected. I would recommend that the 
studies for the first two years be prescribed for the most part, and their 
order fixed ; in other words, that the electives be confined chiefly to the 
last two years of the course. We should insist upon a logical order of 
studies during the entire course. The so-called elective system, as I 
have suggested above, has done as much as anything else to degrade 
the bachelor decrees in our colleges. It is absurd to talk about a 



THE SCHOOL REVIEW 166 

seventeen-year-old boy electing for himself a course of liberal educa- 
tion, and it is even more absurd to permit him to take the course he 
elects in any order he may choose. An a la carte dinner is a suffi- 
ciently dangerous thing for the infant when eaten in proper order and 
manner ; we would think it a crime to let the child eat his ice and 
soup, his cheese and his roast, his salad and his entrees all at the same 
time or in any order that might strike his fancy. This is exactly what 
happens in a good many of our so-called southern universities with 
elective courses. We should allow no elections on the part of students 
which prevent a proper distribution of work among the four great 
groups of subjects named above, and should see to it that the work is 
undertaken in proper order and done in a proper manner. At present 
I fear that it is true of us, as a recent writer has said, that "a B.A. is 
as meaningless an abbreviation as one can find." The B.A. used to 
be considered a license to teach the common, literary branches. If it 
has lost this significance, is it not the fault of our institutions ? How 
shall we make it mean something again? Only by agreeing among 
ourselves what it shall stand for, and then enforcing that standard by 
every fair means possible. We can restore the Bachelor of Arts to his 
profession as teacher only by making the degree represent a definite 
amount of discipline and culture, as proposed above. In order to be 
sure of this, it will be absolutely requisite in addition that the candi- 
date should pursue these studies in proper order and in a systematic 
way, in a public institution, under competent teachers, for a definite 
and fixed length of time, and finally be promoted upon examinations 
whose results should be recorded and certified by a diploma. This 
means that we must agree among ourselves what institutions are worthy 
of recognition, and then cultivate among graduates the habit of attach- 
ing the name of their institution to their degree. 

Fourth. We should distinguish sharply between technical and pro- 
fessional degrees in the B.A., and especially between these degrees and 
the B.S. If we adopt the above course for the B.A. degree, then the 
B.S. degree should make mathematics and experimental and descrip- 
tive sciences the chief things ; allowing, say, 360 hours for pure mathe- 
matics and 840 hours for the sciences, including a proper amount of 
laboratory work. We should require in addition at least 240 hours of 
English language and literature ; 240 hours of a modern language ; 
and 240 hours of history and philosophy, leaving about 480 hours to 
be elected. Again, the work of the first two years should be largely 
prescribed, and the order of studies laid down, and elective work 



1 67 REQUIREMENTS FOR THE BACHELOR'S DEGREE 

reserved for the last two years. In addition to the 2400 hours required 
for the B.A. and the B.S. degree, there should in all cases be required 
a systematic course in physical culture, including instruction in regard 
to diet, clothing, sleep, and the methods of preserving the health and 
keeping one's self in condition for the highest intellectual life. Our 
experience teaches us that no subjects are of greater importance to 
the success of the student, and that none are more sadly neglected, 
indeed, both in the homes and in the schools. 

In conclusion, it must be apparent that our association can render 
no better service than by making the bachelor degrees of our colleges 
signify something definite in the way of discipline and culture. Our 
stronger institutions need to have their work straightened out and 
leveled up, and the weaker ones need our assistance. Will not the 
institutions of this association set an example by adoping a definite 
plan of work leading to bachelor degrees, and by adopting definite 
rules with regard to the requirements for these degrees, which will 
make them mean something, and then go to work to enforce these rules 
with all the strength they have ? The medical colleges have organ- 
ized associations, whose objects are, the establishment of fixed require- 
ments for the degree of doctor of medicine. Has not the time come 
for an association of academic institutions which shall fix the require- 
ments for our ordinary college degrees, and thus put a liberal education 

upon a sound basis ? 

Charles William Dabney 
University of Tennessee, 
Knoxville, Term. 



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